


Game Over

by caralilis



Category: OneShot (Video Game)
Genre: End of the Game, Gen, Spoliers, picks up in the tower, save him route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 07:26:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12930411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caralilis/pseuds/caralilis
Summary: It's the End of the World.Do you save the child you stole or the world you forced him into?





	Game Over

**Author's Note:**

> wowzers long time no see. I actually just wrote this for a class but uh who knows? Maybe I'll actually start posting again.
> 
>  
> 
> yeah, probably not. sorry.

The child, Niko, finally wakes up after a long period of rest. He sits up on the bed, the one constant throughout this strange world. For some reason, it was the only bed he would sleep in. Perhaps it’s a cat thing. Although Niko has told you time and time again that he’s not a cat, you still can’t help but wonder. Like c’mon-- he has a cat-eared beanie and glowing yellow eyes! It’s basically a dead give away.

  
He’s awake now.

  
Niko calls out to someone--you. You can’t respond. Something is stopping you. You desperately wish to respond. This child, you have taken care of since the beginning of it all. It’s the computer. That machine is trying to stop you from reaching the ending. You cannot let it succeed. The literal world depends on it!

  
You don’t respond.

  
The child glances upwards, towards where you assume you would be-- in the vast sky, watching over your world as a god. God, huh? It had a nice ring to it before, but not anymore. Now you are scared of the title. Terrified, even. You didn’t want to be the god-- being the god means you have to make decisions. Decisions you never want to make. But you have to make them, and soon. The sake of the world is in your hands.

  
Your hands feel dirty.

  
You shake the feeling, watching as Niko guides himself around an empty abyss. He walks and walks, but there is nothing. You want to help him. He’s afraid of the dark. He told you once, long ago. Back in the beginning. But this is the end. This is the end, and you can’t even guide the messiah.

  
Niko finds a computer.

  
It’s that machine again. The one blocking you from the ending. You hate the stupid thing. It keeps getting in your way, insisting that your only mission is to protect Niko. But how are you to protect Niko if the world is going to end?

  
The computer talks to Niko.

  
It tells Niko to go back to sleep. It wants him to return home. You also want Niko to return home. But you have a duty to this world, as their god. Leading the messiah to the top of the tower, placing the sun back in its place to bring light back to the world-- that’s your mission. Not protecting Niko.

  
The computer is talking to you now.

  
_You._ If looks could kill, this text would knock you dead.

  
_You knew I was trying to cut the story short._ You do.

  
_Fine. But know that you cannot save them both._ What?

  
The computer shuts off. Niko walks away, back towards the bed. He lays down and drifts off to sleep once more.

  
You are in his dream again. Every time Niko fell asleep, you got to see a tidbit of his dream. This time is no different. He’s in the wheat field, like usual, but this time you see a village off in the distance. His eyes light up and- ah, you understand. It’s _his_ village. The one he was ripped away from in order to save this dim world. The village he spoke to you many times about, where his mother and neighbors and friends all live. It’s the place you are trying desperately to return him to.

  
You call out to him. “Niko.”

  
He turns and looks-not up, but at eye level and, he smiles brightly, right at you and he-

  
Niko wakes up.

  
You are in the dark room again. The computer glows dimly in the background. Niko calls out to you again, but still, you are not able to respond. Why can’t you respond? It’s frustrating. All you want to do is comfort the poor child. He doesn’t deserve this fear, this loneliness. You want to laugh and joke with him once more. You want to save him. Can you save him? At the cost of the world?

  
You can guide Niko again.

  
You take him over to the computer. It’s angry at you. You should have just let Niko go home. You know you should’ve. It was right there in his dream! But it’s coding, it says, won’t allow it to disobey if you want to continue. But it can send you to place you will never return from. And so it does.

  
You had received a strange journal early on in the journey. It was translated by the head librarian earlier, just before you entered the tower. Some pages were missing from it, but only in the physical sense. You had the papers all along. And now, you understand them.

  
You lead Niko through the maze of darkness.

  
It doesn’t take long. A few hallways, a couple of doors and some puzzles later you find the light bulb. As you lead Niko towards it, the choice given to you in the journal weighs heavily on you. Save the world or Niko?

  
Niko picks up the light bulb and leaves the room.

  
You are now in a house. As you guide Niko down the hallway, the machine calls out to you. The World Machine, according to the journal. An entity that craves the death of this world and itself. It begs you to reconsider. It begs you to save Niko.

  
You reach the end of the hallway.

  
There’s an elevator there, ready to take you to the top of the tower. The final boss, in a sense. Niko walks through the doors and it closes. He calls out to you and asks if you’ve left him, with slight desperation. Oh, that’s right. He hasn’t heard you speak in a while.

  
This time you can answer.

  
“I never left you,” you say.

  
“Oh, I thought it was weird. I should have known you wouldn’t leave me!”

  
You pause, “Niko, there’s something I have to tell you.”

  
Niko looks up. “What is it?”

  
“We can’t save both.”

  
“What?”

  
“We can't save both,” you say. “The world and you.”

  
You explain that by breaking the light bulb Niko will lose his connection to the world and finally return home. But the world would die.

  
“And if I return the sun? What will happen to me?”

  
“I don’t know,” you say.

  
The rest of the elevator ride is quiet.

  
At the top of the tower is a room made of windows. There, in the center, is a spot for the light bulb Niko carries- the sun of this world. If he returns it, the world is saved. If he doesn’t, Niko will go back home.

  
“What’s the right thing to do?” Niko asks.

  
He’s asking for your help. He wants you to choose. His life, or the lives of many? The poor child you stole or the world you forced him into? You don’t know. What is the right thing to do? You don’t know, you don’t know you don't-

  
Niko looks up at you. You choose to save him.

  
He breaks the light bulb. The world goes dark.

  
You are back in the room you started in. Niko says goodbye.

  
He walks off your screen. The world is ending.

  
No. It was just your game.  
  


e.


End file.
